The battle against antibiotic resistance – a look behind the scenes

At 651media, we tell the stories of the people, products and services that exist behind the scenes—those things that keep our world moving but aren’t commonly seen or heard.

That’s why we jumped at the chance to tell the story of what our new friends at General Probiotics are working on in their St. Paul laboratory.

Fighting rapidly-increasing antibiotic resistance is no small task but, each day, the world’s leading probiotics engineers at General Probiotics tackle this burgeoning healthcare and food system crisis.

With proprietary technologies first discovered at the University of Minnesota, they engineer advanced probiotics– antibiotic replacements that can fight bacterial infections, secure food production, and eliminate the overuse of antibiotics in livestock production.

And the results are pretty amazing. General Probiotics has demonstrated that these probiotics can eliminate 97% of salmonella in poultry—unprecedented results that earned them a spot as a semifinalist in the highly-competitive statewide entrepreneurial competition, MN Cup.

The contest required semifinalists to submit a video that positioned their start-up as an innovator with the best breakthrough entrepreneurial idea. After viewing our previous work (specifically this Trane Rentals video), the folks at General Probiotics were confident we could tell their story concisely (to meet the contest’s 60-second limit) while also telling their story in a compelling way.

Upon initial meeting with General Probiotics leaders, it was clear to us their passion and knowledge would play well in an interview-driven video. After talking through their story, they let us follow them around the lab for a day to get a look behind the scenes.